This debut feature offers a reframing of the straightforward moral debate which has dominated Thai popular culture for the last two decades. Two working-class boys have grown up as best friends; one is the son of a peasant farmer, the other the son of a Thai-Chinese grocer. An early scene shows them as young kids wondering how to get ahead in life; they reject the traditional possibilities of show-biz and Thai boxing and opt instead to follow their respective fathers, one as a champion rower, the other as the leader of a dragon-dancing team. What follows is a simple morality play about father-figures and sons, good influences and bad influences, honour and disgrace. If the script looks back to an earlier and more melodramatic phase in Thai cinema, the tendencies to schematisation and exaggeration are offset by the dynamic shooting and editing style, the likeable performances and the unusual insights into Thailand’s Chinese minority. (T.R.)
